The present invention is directed to a method for allowing a called party to designate that a calling party shall pay for a call. More particularly, the present invention provides, in the wireless environment, that a subscriber with a mobile station can adjust a subscriber profile so that a calling party must agree to pay for a call to the subscriber before the call will be completed.
In today""s wireless communication environment, it is customary practice for the wireless subscriber or mobile station subscriber to assume payment responsibility for air time charges for calls involving a subscriber station regardless of whether the call originates from the station or originates from some other location and terminates at the station. However, this customary practice may be disadvantageous to the mobile station subscriber. The subscriber under these circumstances is forced to pay for calls which they do not wish to receive. For instance, the subscriber may receive solicitation telephone calls. Upon answering such a call the subscriber will be charged with a connection fee and possibly some minimum air time fee even if the call does not proceed to any great extent. It is therefore desirable to provide the called party with some opportunity to select whether it wishes to pay for calls to the mobile station.
It is already known in the art, for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,381,467 to allow a called party to share toll charges which are normally paid by the calling party in the land line environment. However, there is no suggestion in this patent of any solution to the xe2x80x9ccalled-party-paysxe2x80x9d dilemma faced in the wireless environment.
The present invention provides a wireless subscriber with the capability of designating that a calling party shall be responsible for paying the charges associated with a call to the wireless station.
In accordance with the present invention, the wireless or mobile station subscriber, during an activation or registration period, generates a request to adjust the payment responsibility allocation. The request is sent to a switching center associated with a base station with which the mobile station wirelessly communicates. The switching center then revises a subscriber profile to indicate, for instance, the subscriber has designated that the calling party shall be responsible for paying the costs for the call. The request can be made using codes transmitted over a control channel, where the codes are created at the mobile station using a keypad of the device. At a later time the subscriber can, in another registration process, again change the payment responsibility allocation to designate the called party as the party responsible for payment.
When a calling party initiates a call to the mobile unit, a query is passed to the database that contains the subscriber profile for the mobile unit. The switching center determines which party is responsible for paying for the call in accordance with the subscriber""s profile. If the called party is to pay, then a call can simply be processed as it normally would. If, however, the subscriber has adjusted the profile to indicate that the calling party must pay, then the switching center sends a notice to the local exchange for the calling party. The calling party is then notified that before the call will be completed they must accept responsibility for payment for the call. If the calling party agrees to accept payment, either by a voice response or activation of certain keys on the calling party keypad, then the call is processed and completed.